


Alone

by Emerald147



Series: GCSE Fictional Coursework [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Arrhythmia, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, GSCE coursework, Heart disorder, Immortality, Invulnerability, gay relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-09 19:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17412536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emerald147/pseuds/Emerald147
Summary: Sometimes being immortal is great, sometimes it isn't all it's cracked up to be.





	Alone

Valerie is fearless. She is the ever-lasting aftermath of a supernova, as constant as a quark and as bold as a super-giant. She, despite living for so long, is far from wise, far from calm. She is as reckless and wild as a quasar – constantly pulling people in while also pushing them away. A contradiction. A humming symphony who is beautiful the same way a waterfall is; somehow, she is both the Adrenalin at the top and the crash at the bottom. Valerie is fearless. 

 

It wasn’t always that way. It was many centuries ago, when her mother was dying and her name was still Amarachukwu that she remembers feeling fear. After watching the once azure and vibrant eyes dim slowly and painfully it was simply easier to pull away from it all. If she is doomed to be alone it shall be on her terms. That is what she decided as she cried for the last time in centuries. 

That isn’t to say things didn’t make her sad, but she didn’t cry. She either fixed the problem, or decided she didn’t care. After one too many failures Valerie decided it would be better to simply not care. And though she didn’t become cold and detached, some part of her was always separate. She never ran out of things to do, what with how the world was constantly changing and evolving, though there were times she would find someplace no one else had, or a place few people would go (such as the Galapagos Islands, or the very peak of Mt. Everest) - sure it took a while to get there, and the extreme weather took time to become accustomed to, but it was worth it after a month or so - and she would sit for years, simply watching how things changed. 

Valerie likes change. She has watched bitter people whine and complain about it but she will always hold it dear. Change was the only thing making her very long stay on Earth bearable. Sometimes, to observe that change, she would descend from where she was staying and watch people. She never made attachments, but she did try to help where possible. 

Well, there was one time. It was in 1932, when she met Ximena Maez in Spain, just after the Civil War started. Valerie liked Spain, unlike other parts of the world she didn’t feel like she had to hide and she saw her people (or those who were the descendants of her people) being celebrated. Ximena was a gentle soul. The polar opposite of Valerie’s unpredictable nature. When the two of them met it was like the meeting of two galaxies, explosive and brilliant. Two bodies of stars coalescing into one even greater. Valerie wasn’t one for connections to people, she preferred to be alone because it was safer. But Ximena wasn’t one for taking no for an answer. It didn’t take long for Ximena to break Valerie’s bubble. Though Valerie had never been happier, she also knew that, as well as breaking into her bubble, Ximena had passed her event horizon. Every moment they spent together was bittersweet and desperate. Ximena thought it was because of the war, and so indulged Valerie in her protective habits. 

It had been so long since Valerie had felt that way. That awful feeling of butterflies turning into snakes that squeeze and twist around your insides. The feeling of nervous anticipation for something awful. The highway filled with sudden turns for the worst and only one destination. Valerie was scared. Valerie, who had sat in flowing magma, who had swum to the bottom of the ocean, who had climbed nearly every mountain, who had survived plane crashes and sinking boats and every natural disaster known to man, was scared. Ximena was fragile, with brittle bones and weak muscles and a good, kind, damaged heart. Valerie would always remember how Ximena used to describe her little hummingbird heart: “It skips a beat or two because it’s happy to see you, the same way I am. It’s a happy little heart, dear, it just wants to run and play with everyone else, it means no harm.” Ximena would always say that, as if everything would be okay. Valerie knew it wouldn’t be, she had seen hearts like Ximena’s before; she knew exactly how it would end. 

Valerie was so scared, so afraid. She didn’t know why. She had seen this all happen before, she had seen people whose bodies turned against them and slowly destroyed them inside out. But she was. 

Ximena died at the age of 24 with a smile on her face and Valerie’s hand in hers. 

Valerie sat for five weeks by her grave, no one bothered her or talked to her. She didn’t cry and was silent, though she could feel her heart screaming in her chest. After five weeks Valerie disappeared, hiding behind a waterfall to drown out the ever-constant beat of her heart. 

The heart of the average human adult weighs roughly two-hundred to four-hundred grams. Valerie thought, dramatically, that maybe there was something else in her chest that made it feel so full, so leaden; to make it such a damn ordeal to make herself get up, to make herself simply be. 

Years pass. The lead that was weighing her heart down forms a barrier around it. Molten iron solidifying on her rib-cage and platinum plating her skull. 

 

Valerie is fearless. She is the ever-lasting aftermath of a supernova, as constant as a quark and as bold as a super-giant. She, despite living for so long, is far from wise, far from calm. She is as reckless and wild as a quasar – constantly pulling people in while also pushing them away. A contradiction. A humming symphony who is beautiful the same way a waterfall is; somehow, she is both the Adrenalin at the top and the crash at the bottom. Valerie is fearless. 

Valerie is alone.


End file.
